


apropos, you're beautiful

by selvish (orphan_account)



Series: Queer!5SOS [1]
Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, Happy, M/M, Other, genderqueer!Michael, queer au, trans!ashton
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-21
Updated: 2014-11-24
Packaged: 2018-02-26 12:28:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2652074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/selvish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ashton Irwin has just had his top surgery, and returns home to his three best friends to celebrate.<br/>this is a dumb happy queer au bc thats all I can write besides smut</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Ashton winced slightly in the old passenger seat. His mum had turned on the warming pads underneath him to try and ease the odd ache going through his body, but it could only do so much for his upper back and shoulders. After his surgery he spent a night and the following day in the hospital in order to make sure everything was sewn up well. Now he had a weird sac sending fluid to his chest and two curved scars under each... He smiled to himself, giggling slightly as he noticed the lack of weight on his upper body. He turned to his mum and widened his grin as their eyes met. A tear was rolling down her cheek and she tightened the grip on his hand. Her eyes flickered back to the road and she sniffed, laughing along with her son.  
“I am so, so proud of you, Ashton.” She whispered, never easing the strong hold on his hand. He bit the inside of his cheek and squeezed his eyes shut, trying desperately to keep from crying as well. Ashton held her hand back, shaking slightly as she continued.  
“You are by far the bravest man I’ve ever met, and this only proves that more. Please, never forget how proud I am to call you my son.” Her voice was shaking along with her hands as she dared to look at him again. She pulled over slowly and cried openly, letting go of his hand only to wipe off her face. Ashton reached across the center console to hold her gently, tightening the hug as she leaned into him more. He winced slightly at the pressure on his sensitive body, but beared it for her. She noticed and tutted, sitting back up and smiling at him despite the tears still falling gently on her cheeks.  
“Don’t hurt yourself because of silly ol’ mum, boy.” Ashton laughed again and sat up to kiss her forehead, letting her hold his head afterwards. Quickly, she turned it into a harsh muss of his honey toned curls and pushed him away playfully. She winked at him once more before putting the car back into proper gear and pulling off again towards his home.  
“I love you, mum. Thank you.” Ashton whispered, looking over at her and resting his hand on hers again. She only nodded, smiling to herself gently, and he did as well.  
A comfortable silence drifted in and out of the car, the wind coming through the windows blowing Ashton’s hair back from his face, since he didn’t have a bandana to do it for him. His hazel eyes fluttered shut and he drifted into a peaceful doze until they reached his home. His mother parked and slowly lifted her hand from his, using it to pinch above his knee and chuckling as he jumped.  
“Mum! You scared me.” He laughed, rubbing his eyes and glaring playfully at her. Her eyes were still a little red but she was still smiling. That was all that mattered.  
“Out you go, Ash. The boys are probably going mental without you.” She nudged his shoulder to try and push him out the car, only stopping her teasing when he cringed again.  
“Take it easy, alright? Please heal well. I’ll call tonight.” She doted, patting his shoulder and leaning over to kiss his cheek. He nodded and rolled his eyes, grabbing his suitcase from the back seat. As he shut the door he waved to his mother and wandered up to his small porch. The light was on, regardless of it being midday, and Ashton rolled his eyes again. Pulling out his key and encouraging the door with his hip, he got into his house and breathed deeply. It smelled like beer, pizza, and young adults. It smelled like home.  
Ash slammed the door behind him, turning off the porch light and shouting, “Oi, if you keep leaving that damn light on you’re going to be paying for the electricity yourself, Mike!”  
Immediately after he started talking a chaotic thunder of footsteps fell against the poor overused stairs, and his two best friend practically fell down to the ground floor. Before they could attack, Ashton held up his suitcase as a shield.  
“No hugging for 4 more days, unless you want to break me.” He said, seriousness evident in his eyes behind their normal light. Michael and Luke nodded excitedly in unison, practically buzzing in excitement.  
“We missed you.” Luke blurted, smiling widely. He raced around the back of his shorter friend and hugged him fiercely around the neck, making sure not to go any lower than his shoulders.  
“Yes! A loophole!” Michael called in excitement, sliding down to the floor to hug at the brunette’s knees. Ashton laughed and steadied himself against the red-head in order to keep from falling under their weight.  
“I missed you guys too.” He said quietly, taking a moment to draw in the warmth and familiarity of his friends.  
Slowly, they rose to their feet, and Luke took his suitcase up to his room. Michael took his now free hand and dragged him into the kitchen, where two large pizza boxes stood open. Ash plopped down on a stool gratefully, immediately grabbing three slices and finishing one before Luke came back down to laugh at him.  
“Hey, I was on hospital food for 3 days, give me a break!” He yelled through the food in his mouth. Carefully he pulled a pepperoni off of one slice and tossed it at Luke, landing it on the hand reaching for his own slices. The blonde yelped in annoyance and pouted at the red residue left over from it.  
“So rude. You’ve just come back and the bullying is in full swing.” ‘He bit his lip around the pout, and Michael smacked the side of his head.  
“Shut up and eat, Luke.” He chorused, and Ashton couldn’t help but close his eyes for a minute. Being away from these two for only 3 days had been hard, and he was thankful to be a part of their shenanigans again.  
They ate quietly, taking time to enjoy each others company after being away. It was almost worrisome how much they stuck together, but ever since high school they had been inseparable- never going more than a day without seeing each other. Empty small talk drifted in and out of the kitchen, but it was comfortable and almost domestic, so they smiled to themselves and each other until they had just about finished.  
As if on cue, Luke’s phone went off, he bit his lip as he noticed the time. He sheepishly looked up at the boys across from him, who were grinning, a light of teasing in their eyes.  
“Who is it, Luke?” Michael giggled, looking over at Ashton playfully. Luke blushed.  
“Who would call you at exactly 1pm? It’s almost like this happens every day.” Ashton continued, raising his eyebrows as the phone rang again.  
Before Luke could answer, Michael had reached over the table and snatched the phone up, putting it to his hear and obnoxiously cooing into it.  
“Luke Hemmings’ phone, Michael speaking. May I ask who this is?” Luke was glaring at him from across the table and cringed when he noticed the green eyed troublemaker had put the phone on speakerphone.  
“It’s the fucking president of the United States, shithead. Where is my boyfriend.” A crackly voice came through the device, broken up by a few thousand miles of ocean, but still understandable. Luke was bright red and practically crawling over the table as Ashton tried not to burst open his new stitches with the laughter.  
“This is so unhealthy, I’m going to rip my chest open, Michael!” He hollered, while Michael continued to speak lovingly into Luke’s phone.  
“Oh, shit, Ash’s back from surgery?! Congrats, man!” The voice continued, “Sorry for interrupting the welcome back party- just tell Luke to Skype me later.”  
“No no, it’s fine! Go ahead and have your little video date.” Ashton said through uneven laughs as Luke finally regained control of his phone. He immediately took it off speaker and mumbled into the bottom,  
“Sorry about them. I’ll call you in a minute.” He looked up at his friends who were both sporting shit-eating grins and urging him to go on. He rolled his eyes and walked out of the kitchen before they could hear him add, “love you.”  
Michael and Ashton watched Luke leave the room before turning back to each other with softer smiles on their features. Their cheeks were going to hurt by the end of today if they were gonna be this happy, but they supposed it wasn’t the worst way to suffer.  
“I’m really happy for him, you know?” Ashton spoke up, causing Michael to lift an eyebrow.  
“I know we make fun of them a lot, but it’s really cool that they can have such a good relationship in their situation.” He continued, resting his head in the palm of his hand. Michael nodded.  
“Russ is good for him, I hope they get to meet soon.” Michael agreed, and silence lapsed over them for a few seconds. Slowly, Ashton started to stand, stretching as much as he could without stretching out his torso. He was stopped, however, after a slightly worried look from Michael.  
“What’s up?” The boy asked, scratching the back of his neck and enjoying looking down on Michael for once in the back of his head.  
“I actually- uh. Fuck. I wanted to talk to you about something? Like, serious?” He stuttered slightly, nervous. Michael was never nervous, or if he was he usually didn’t show it. Ash immediately sat back down, leaning towards the other boy with concern evident in his features.  
“Go ahead, man.”  
Michael flinched.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Michael comes out, and Calum comes home.

Ashton waited patiently for Michael to continue. They sat in silence for a tense 60 seconds, with Ashton wringing his hands and Michael squeezing his eyes shut. Eventually they opened and he took a shaky breath, laughing softly and scratching behind his head.  
“So, you know how I like, always support your gender stuff?” He asked tentatively, stilling his hand to level his gaze with Ashton’s. His hazel eyes had become guarded, and the wringing ceased immediately as he leaned back into the hard wooden chair. His arms came to cross on his tender chest, and he used the sharp pain to keep his head.  
“If you’re about to tell me you changed your fucking mind, I’m going to say it’s a little late, Michael.” Ashton practically spat, never letting his hard eye contact falter from his roommate’s. Said roommate’s own eyes flashed with horror, and all of a sudden he was frantically reaching forward for his friend.  
“Oh, shit. No! ... No god, not at all, I just realized how awful that sounded because I didn’t think. Ashton no I would never- it’s actually like, the opposite.” He stumbled over his words, distraught, until larger hands encased his own softly. He breathed again.  
“I’m sorry. I cut you off, what were you saying?” The brunette whispered, now nervous as to what was going on. Carefully he dragged his thumb over his friend’s hand, trying to comfort him about something he didn’t know yet. This was hard.  
Michael laughed nervously again, this time because his breath was coming shallower and his shoulders were shaking. He leaned into the table in a failed attempt to get closer to Ashton. He felt cold and exposed, and once he realized their shitty wooden table wasn’t going to be moving any time soon, he slumped onto the cool surface and sighed.  
“I’m queer. Like-” He laughed. “Genderqueer queer? Like neutral pronouns I guess and shit.” Michael’s voice slipped to a clothed mutter, and Ashton sat still for a moment, halting the circles on the cold hand before giggling slightly and ruffling the red hair in front of him.  
“Michael! That’s perfectly fine. Of all of the people in the world, why were you worried I would be against switching your pronouns?” Ashton’s bubbly glow was back, and his bright eyes were shining with relief. Michael giggled back, looking up over their arm to smile at their best friend.  
“I mean just- some people even in this community are really anti-non-binary? I dunno. I was just nervous.” They shook their head as they spoke, taking in the overreaction and laughing his nerves off.  
“Lately I’ve just been thinking about myself, you know? Like how I was always kind of uncomfortable with the whole need to be manly and masculine. That’s why I started dying my hair more feminine colours. And then one day I was out shopping and this little kid couldn’t tell if I was a boy or a girl and it just... fit. Like I’m not either of those things. I’m Mikey, you know?” They continued, now stronger with their words. Their head came off of the table in favour of resting in their free hand. Ashton nodded, still smiling at them gently.  
Once again the two were lapsed into silence. It lasted a few minutes, where they stood and took in each others features without worrying about what to say. Around this time Luke had wandered in, resting in the doorway to watch the quiet scene with a cocked eyebrow. He cleared his throat.  
“Am I interrupting something? It’s intimate as fuck in here.” The blonde chuckled, only partially joking as he joined them at the table again. Michael and Ashton slowly looked away from each other, a light blush dusting their cheeks as they shook their heads at the other housemate.  
Partway through Ashton filling them in, the front door slammed and a loud groan reverberated through the house. A pouting Calum stomped into the kitchen, oblivious to Ashton’s mouth half-open in speech, and Luke playing with Michael’s hair fondly. He was used to this anyway.  
“Boys are awful.” The tan boy himself grumbled, reaching into the fridge to take a swig of milk from the carton. When he wasn’t immediately met with howls of disgust and outrage, he lowered it and eyed his friends properly.  
“That’s why I stopped being one.” Michael said nonchalantly, looking at Calum boredly and nuzzling into Luke’s hand when the petting had stilled. Calum nodded, wiping any initial surprise from his face along with the remaining milk. He sat down in the final empty chair and placed the carton next to him.  
“She?” He asked calmly, eying Michael with a look full of so much unsaid conversation that Ashton and Luke were momentarily taken aback. The connection between the two lifelong friends was always surprising.  
“They.” Michael responded, blinking back thoughtfully and reaching over to drink from the carton as well.  
“Hey! Whoa, why are we being gross?!” Ashton suddenly squawked, smacking the carton of milk away from their lips.  
“Calum got to do it! This is a hate crime. I’m telling tumblr.” Michael cackled, holding the milk away from Ashton’s reach. Luke laughed loudly, leaning into Calum and pulling his hand back from their hair.  
“It’s not cissexism if I’m trans, shithead!” Ashton called back, flinching in an almost punctuating way, as if to remind Michael of his recent surgery. Calum groaned.  
“Wow. Big words.” The brown-eyed boy replied quietly, massaging his temple carefully and looking down to smile tiredly at the blonde practically in his lap.  
 _“Bad date?”_ Luke mouthed with his brow furrowed. Calum nodded solemnly, placing his head on top of his quiff in hopes for comfort. The head under him hummed in response, patting his thigh as Ashton and Michael continued to terrorize each other across the table.  
“Cake cuddle. Calum had a bad day.” Luke suddenly shouted over the racket. The two stilled immediately, nodding at the two and shooting Cal encouraging smiles as the boys wandered up to Luke’s room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok so I've decided this main plot will be 5 chapters, and after that ill open for prompts in this verse i guess? if u want idk  
> talk to me on tumblr pls im a lonely little lad

**Author's Note:**

> first two chapters by selvish


End file.
